>> if you take them at their word, it sounds like the president is anxious to go over the fiscal cliff, and he leaves very little room for republicans to negotiate with him with a 1.7 trillion dollar tax increase, 50 billion more in stimulus spending, and absolutely no expenditure reductions that are going to take place right now. i mean, from the point of view of republicans, you're going to get more spending decreases if you go over the fiscal cliff than if you deal with president obama. >> greta: well, it appears to many in the city that it's politico check mate for the president. if we go over the fiscal cliff, what it means is the taxes will go up on the wealthy, the big earners. it also goes up on the middle class. i assume the middle class will look to the rawp republicans foe fact that their taxes come up so political check mate. >> i'm not so sure. president obama could avoid that very simply by putting maybe two or three to one expenditure reductions on the table for revenue increases, something like sim responsibl simpson bow. he has a formula given to him by a commission he